Felipe Anderson Cites Neymar and di Canio As Inspiration

The pair came through the youth academy at Santos together and were good friends, before their careers took different paths.

Neymar went to Barcelona in 2013, while Anderson moved to Serie A club Lazio during the same season. Anderson said Neymar already proved his credentials as a leader at a young age.

“It was very special to meet him (Neymar) in the early days, when I was playing under-15s, under-16s, we played together for three years,” Anderson said in an exclusive interview with the Daily Mirror newspaper.

Young Felipe is what we call a rising star. Being 26 years old and a stand out player at The Hammers, bookies are also impressed by his scoring potential. Odds on Felipe Anderson being top goalscorer on EPL 2019-2020 are decent and he is marked 4th place of achieving the title. Odds on him vary from 250/1 with SkyBet to 500/1 with Bet365.

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“He turned professional, but we’d already formed a strong friendship and he quickly became a star. He made sure he helped me, gave me advice and confidence and really helped me with that. He told me to be as confident as I could, listen out to advice from all areas, learn as much as possible because it was such a big opportunity to turn professional at such a young age.”

Anderson was just 20 when he made the move to Italy and says Italian striker Paolo di Canio was also a figure of inspiration, having played for Lazio and West Ham United.

“Paolo di Canio is the obvious one as he also played for Lazio, he is still an idol here at West Ham, I knew about his story at the club. The goals, the fantastic performances he produced and how much the fans love him so I’m trying to work as hard as I can to follow in his footsteps.

“It was a dream for me to join this league, I got plenty of support from West Ham as a club, I enjoyed a few good performances last season but what matters is the overall team displays and that’s still an area where there’s work to be done.

“The club has shown a great love and support for me from when I arrived, even when things have not gone well, so I’ve always been sure to work as hard as possible and to repay the club with goals and performances to get the team as high up the table as possible.”

Anderson joined West Ham from Lazio in the summer of 2018 and has impressed with his creativity and goalscoring contributions from the wing. Tipped by the bookies to be the first goalscorer in West Ham at 11/1 since April, we are predicting him more success in thriving throughout rest of EPL.